A WIN ... AND A LOSS
HOBART Hurricanes fired with the bat yesterday to open their WBBL account with a 72-run win over Melbourne Stars in Burnie. Indian recruit Smriti Mandhana led the way with 69 off 41 balls as the Canes racked up 6-196 — their highest WBBL score — before limiting the Stars to 124. The only bad news was a possible hamstring injury to star Hayley Matthews, with the Barbadian run out after she slipped while attempting to regain her ground.
THE Hobart Hurricanes’ record-breaking victory yesterday has been tempered by a possible severe injury to star import Hayley Matthews.
Hobart blasted its way to a team-record 6-196 and then bowled out the Stars for 124 to romp away to a 72-run win, its first WBBL04 game in three attempts.
Indian import Smriti Mandhana set up the victory in just her second match, blasting 69 from 41 balls at the top of the order with 13 fours, with help from Matthews (42 from 30) in a 98-run stand off just 53 balls.
However, it wasn’t all good news, with Matthews injuring her knee in an awkward fall as she slipped turning to regain her ground and was run out.
The West Indian all-rounder was on crutches after the match and would return to Hobart today for further scans, coach Salliann Briggs said.
“I never know with Hayley because she’s quite dramatic to say the least,” Briggs said.
“We’ll scan her tomorrow and hopefully it is not too bad, because again she bowled fantastically yesterday [in the loss] and she’s so explosive with the bat. She’s a great player to work with and someone who has been in the Hurricanes’ team for a very long time. Hopefully she’s all right.”
The Mandhana-Matthews combination lit the fuse — including taking 25 off Makinley Blows’ only over — allowing Hurricanes captain Sasha Moloney (23 not out off nine) and Corinne Hall (23 not out off 17) to explode at the end to push the asking rate up to just under 10 an over.
The Stars had no option but to go out hard but, unlike Saturday, the Hurricanes’ bowling and fielding stood up as wickets regularly fell and the target was never really challenged.
Heather Knight took 3-10 from three overs, including a sharp one-handed return catch, while Veronica Pyke and Meg Phillips both chipped in with two wickets. Briggs praised the team’s all-round performance after glimpses of form in two previous losses.
“I think we put up a competitive total yesterday and then we just bowled not to our plans, we really let the side down with our bowling,” she said. “We spoke about that and thankfully we managed to put another good score on and closed it our perfectly.”
The Hurricanes’ next games are on Saturday and Sunday against the Sydney Sixers at Blundstone Arena.